Daniel 4 - Clarity Over Confusion
Tom Shrader examines Daniel 4, where Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree being cut down and experiences seven years of madness, living like a wild animal. Through this humbling experience, the proud king learns that God is sovereign over all kingdoms and gives them to whomever He chooses. The teaching emphasizes how God's character, faithfulness, promises, and sovereignty sustain believers through difficult times when circumstances feel out of control.
“He's a God who does as He pleases, and that doesn't mean that He operates in some capricious way, it means that He has a plan, and His plan will be done.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Integrity Under Fire (2013)
Recorded: November 21, 2013
Duration: 37 min
Themes: sovereignty, pride, humility, faithfulness, authority, circumstances, character, promises, struggling with pride, feeling powerless, facing uncertainty, leader, parent, mentor, mature believer, navigating trials
Scripture: Daniel 4, Daniel 1, Daniel 2, Daniel 3, Daniel 3:18, Genesis 1-2, Genesis 3
Theological Themes: divine sovereignty, god's control, providence, biblical authority, covenant faithfulness, sanctification, becoming holy, spiritual maturity
Full Transcript
Open your Bibles, if you have them, to the book of Daniel. We're going to camp in there this week and then the next two. This is session four of what is a six-session series, taking a chapter a week.
I want to take some time to review and get us on the same page, and then we'll tee up chapter four today with a new character. Nebuchadnezzar becomes a central figure. We said these are historic events that began in 605 BC when a group of young Israelite boys that included Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar. We were told in chapter one that they were young—that word would communicate to us like 14, 15, 16. They were without physical defect. They had the right pedigree. They had not accomplished much, nor would you expect them to at age 15. Staying out of jail is a big thing now, if you can do that. But they had potential.
The Plan of Assimilation
The plan was for Nebuchadnezzar to pull them into the culture and assimilate them into the culture. In week one, we talked about convictions and how we can keep our convictions. We live in a very confrontational time. We use inflammatory language, and I'm not arguing the reality of it, but we talk in terms of stuff like "culture warrior" that implies battle, and everybody digs in.
I was watching John Kennedy's stuff, and it was Kennedy negotiating something with the Congress. It was sitting down and going back and forth: here's what I want, here's what you want, here's what I can't do, here's what I won't do. At the end of the day, there was like resolution. You get the feeling—don't know that that's true—that that doesn't happen a lot anymore. Everybody's dug in. It's polemic.
So we sit down at work and try to negotiate management labor. We sit down in families. We said that first week there's a way, and it's attractive, where I could sit and actually have a dialogue. That's what Daniel did. He said, "Here's what you want. I can't do that, but I can do this." And he said, "Well, I'm worried about that because you may not look well." Daniel said, "Let's do a test," and we talked about that.
Integration Over Segmentation
The second and third week, Daniel two and three, are right in my personal wheelhouse. They're my things that over the 25 years of teaching, I come back to again and again. Chapter two was integration over segmentation, and what it said very simply is that what you believe has to affect how you behave. The strongest asset you have in every relationship in your life is your faith.
So I used Sandy yesterday. We met with a couple the other day who are dating, and they're older—meaning my age. They're saying, "We haven't dated that long, but we think we want to get married, but we don't know if we want to get married. How did you know?" I said it was easy for me because I said to Sandy, "I know this will work if you don't change." But she did change. She got even better than I thought.
So we've been married 20 months, and it's unbelievable. But what's happened—and I keep Sandy very busy—she and I are similar in terms of things we like or don't like, but our views of life are different. Like she right now is running, and I'm doing what God would have a person do. That's the difference between the two. She views life very much as a participation sport, and I view it more as let's observe.
On Monday, she teaches a Bible study up this way. Monday night, she's at BFF. Tuesday morning, she meets with eight ladies for a year. They're in a year curriculum from the church. Wednesday—this is my favorite thing she does—she babysits at BSF, so the leaders can go to classes. There's no kudos in this deal. She's not doing it so somebody would notice.
But I really try to facilitate her doing that because the closer she grows to God, the better person and wife she is for me. So it's nothing spiritual itself. She didn't date for eight years after she became a Christian, and she was saying in her diary—and she has the date—it was the same day that somebody came to me and said, "You ought to ask out this Sandy girl." For the first time in eight years, she prayed and said, "God, I think I'm ready to date." She says that Tom's an answer to prayer, but if she knew God was going to answer it, she would have been more specific. So she thinks she's funny. We were hugging watching TV the other night, and she said—this is a new one to me—she said, "You're a stud muffin, but mostly muffin." I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound right.
Faith as Our Greatest Asset
But it's the same thing. The closer I am to God, the better friend I am, the better staff person I am, better husband I am. That's what you want. I mean, the best thing that you can have going for you is your Christian faith. It's the strongest asset you have in the marketplace, and so I want to integrate that. Our faith is deeply personal, but not private.
Then last week—and I love it—it's Daniel chapter 3, where Nebuchadnezzar is going to throw the boys into the fire, and they say, "Our God is able to save us." Daniel 3:18, "but even if He doesn't." That not everything works out the way you want it to. God's going to throw you into the equivalent of whatever those fires are, whatever that testing is.
I'm at Scottsdale Bible Church teaching a week from Sunday, and I'm going to take that, which was already in there, and develop that idea. I read a quote, and I think I brought it in here. I don't know how you prove these things. I don't know if it's true or not, but it preaches well. It said this: that teenagers today are under more stress than a psychiatric patient was in 1950. Now, I have no idea if that's completely true, kind of true. All I know is if it's sort of true, it speaks to the world we're in.
Well, in the midst of that, what do you do? How can these guys say this? How can they say "even if it doesn't"? Well, it's because—and these will be
The big umbrella points today center on the character of God, the faithfulness of God, the promises of God, and the sovereignty of God. When God says to me in His Word, "He who began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus," I know He'll never leave me or forsake me, though it may feel like He does.
Not every deal closes. Not every marriage works out. Sandy and I were talking about this at dinner last night. Haley has four kids that are totally different, and Lucy, who's two and a half, is in this Lucy phase. That's the best thing to call it. She FaceTimed the other night and said, "Papa," and it's not "how are you." She said, "do you think I'm adorable?" I said, not right now. I really don't. I think you're a self-absorbed little wench is what you are, but that's how we all are, and some of us manifest more security in that than others.
The key in the midst of that is as life comes, exaggerated by times of year, you know that this time of year the phone rings more at church, suicide goes up, difficulties come, all the family dynamics that are goofy are goofy, and then you add a little Chivas Regal with it, and it doesn't get better, it gets worse. How do I do that when it feels like everything's slipping away? Well, I know the character of God, and the faithfulness of God, and the promises of God, and the sovereignty of God.
The Importance of Doctrine
I was looking for a book yesterday, and I'm down on my hands and knees, and I found all these books that I haven't looked at in years. They're all doctrinal, systematic, theology, big books. I mean doorstop books. Why is doctrine important? Well, so I can know God, not just know about Him, but know Him, so now I'm ready to live, and ready to die.
I mean, I thought of Betty a thousand times in the last two days. That frail little body, and what's she like now? Did she hook up with Susan? But she's in the presence of Christ, and that's certain. Between now and then, God does not say, sit in a room and pray. He says, I want you to live life, and in doing that, it's sloppy, and there are times when it feels like even maybe I've abandoned you, but I haven't, because here's my character.
He's a loving God, and a just God, and all that goes with that. Here are my promises. I'm a faithful God. By the way, that character, one of His attributes is called immutability. He doesn't change, which sounds like kind of a throwaway attribute, except that holds everything else together, and then He's sovereign. So that's what we look at today.
Nebuchadnezzar's Testimony
Daniel chapter 4, and I think that gets us caught up. The focus is on Nebuchadnezzar today. He becomes really front and center. Daniel's there. Chapter 4 verse 1: "To the people's nation, men of every language who live on the earth, may you prosper greatly. It is my pleasure, and by the way, yours also, to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are His signs, and how mighty are His wonders. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom. His dominion endures from generation to generation."
Nebuchadnezzar here, in our language, may say, I'm going to share with you a story, but not story and once upon a time made up, fictitious, but I want to share with you, we might use a language like my testimony. I'm a witness. Here's what's happened to me.
Verse 4: "I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace." The NIV, I think, says contented and prosperous. The New American Standard says what? "I was home flourishing." There was this sense of comfort, content, at least in the setting he was in at that moment, but that's quickly interrupted.
The Illusion of Having It All
I understand he's the king of the world. He's a guy that, by everybody's standard in the world, you'd say this guy has it all, and we tend to do that, by the way, in terms of stuff. I don't think I lust after too much material stuff, but I'm driving one day in South Tempe, and I see a house, and this is very uncharacteristic for me, and this house was an amazing house, which to those of you up here in PV would stun you to know there are other nice places in the valley, not as nice as yours, but you get the drift.
I went home, and I told Susan, I said, I saw a house today. It's a fantasy house, and she said, you mean a dream house? I said, no, I mean a fantasy house. A dream house is a house maybe one day you could own. This is a fantasy house. You're never going to own this, but the next time we're out, I want to show it to you.
We drove by it. She said, gosh, I don't know why that pushes your button. It's nice, but I have a friend who lives in the neighborhood, and I'm driving by a week or two later, and here's what I presume is the king of the castle with this cute little petite queen of the castle and their little beautiful kids, and in my mind, I said, this guy's got to be just happy as can be. One morning, I turned on the TV, and the king of the manor had gone down into the basement the night before and put a bullet in his head, and he was of some repute in the community, so it was a lead story.
There's Tom, the Christian biblical teacher, thinking typically human, and we just kind of flinch that way, even though we say this stuff doesn't matter as significant as it once did in our life. We still say, if I had that house, if I had that wife, if I had those kids, if I had those grandkids, if I had that business, I'd be happy. Nebuchadnezzar has all of that times a billion, and he's content and prosperous for a moment.
The Terrifying Dream
At verse 5, it all changes. "I had a dream that made me afraid, and as I was laying in bed, the images and visions that passed through my mind terrified me, so I commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be brought before me to interpret the dream for me."
Now we've learned from at least chapter 2 and 3, this is a waste of time, because these guys don't know. I don't know why I didn't go to verse 9 right away, and I got Belteshazzar.
Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, "I know the spirit of the holy gods is in you." Notice the language here. He's not yet a monotheist, and this is not his God, but again, he loves the fruit of knowing God without any of the responsibility. I'll use Daniel, he's got it. "I know the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery is too difficult for you, so here's my dream, and interpret it."
He tells Daniel what the dream is. It's a dream of this tree, as you can see in your Bible, probably the typeset is a little different, beginning in verse 11 through verse 18. That's the dream. There's this dream of this tree that's flourishing, and birds are resting in it, then the tree is washed away, there's a period of seven years, and he doesn't know what the dream means, but it scares him.
Daniel's Terrifying Interpretation
Daniel comes along and verse 19 says, "Then Daniel was greatly perplexed," the New American Standard said "appalled for a time, and his thoughts terrified him." Now he was not appalled because he didn't know the dream. He knew the dream, and he had an interpretation of it, and he was probably afraid to tell the king that this isn't good news. The king says, "Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning alarm you, just give it to me straight."
I have a friend who is a surgeon. In fact, he just performed a slight procedure on me—slight in his sense of what we did, but we're now married in four states. I said to him, "How many people, when you're getting the test, how many people say to you, 'Just give it to me straight?'" He said, "A hundred percent," which doesn't sound right, but he said literally ten out of ten will say, "Just tell me the truth." I said, "Out of the ten that say that, how many in your mind process and handle it well?" He said, "Maybe one."
Now I don't know if that's accurate or not, and those are subjective terms, but he said most people say give it to me straight, and then they want the good news straight. So I just got a text last night from a friend. He said, "I ran into our mutual friend"—my surgeon pops up again—and he said, "He's doing a procedure now, there's a mass," and then he gave me more information than I needed. Then he spoke of our mutual friend and said, "He's afraid, he's scared." So that would fit in that category: you're scared, give it to me straight, straight is this isn't very good, and then you begin to respond to that.
The Dream's Meaning
Here's what Daniel says: "My lord, if only this dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries." In other words, "I wish this were about the guys that are against you, rather than you, but you've got a problem." Verse 27: "Therefore, O King, be pleased to accept my advice."
So here's the dream: the dream represents your kingdom, your kingdom that has reigned and covered the earth, and you've prospered, and the earth has prospered. But the kingdom, at least your part of it, and your reign is going into a period of seven periods, seven years, where there'll be destruction. You'll be off the throne, but one day you'll be restored.
So what do you do in the midst of that? Here's good advice, by the way. It's good advice always, especially in moments like this: "Pronounce your sin by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that your prosperity will continue." In other words, in our language, we'll hit the pause button for the story. What he's saying is to repent.
The Nature of Humanity and Control
We're born into this world—Sandy and I just had a bunch of time yesterday. Tyler's out of town, and he called Sandy and said, "Listen, I'm gone four days teaching at something up in Michigan, and is there any chance you could go by and just watch the kids for a couple hours and let Haley get out?" So there's the four of them, four kids, and I don't know how they do it. I mean, I don't know. I had them in the car the other day. There's one of them especially that's irritating, and irritating in the sense that she never stops.
So she said to me the other day, "Papa, Papa," and remember, it's not like World Peace or Obamacare or something. So she said, "Papa," and I said, "Here you go, buddy, you get three questions," and she said, "Why?" I said, "There's one." I can't handle it—all eight of them. We decided we're having Thanksgiving in our house. So there's eight of them, ages seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and six months. I just started last night, I told Sandy, just starting to drink Gatorade and rest and prepare for it. It's a week away.
So we had all these conversations. Haley called and said, "Tyler said I can get out of the house, why don't you meet me at Whole Foods and we'll get something to eat there." Haley eats that stuff, and so I said, "Perfect, I can get pizza." We're talking about the kids, and we're talking about the two younger girls, so essentially two and a half, two and three-quarters, and one and a half. We're talking about how different they are personality-wise, but how both of them are manipulative—get what they want, or take what they want. That's all of us as we come into the world.
So I was talking to somebody the other day, and they said, "He's a control freak." I said, "I don't know one person who doesn't want to be in control. I don't know one person. I don't know that you can use the word freak, but do you know anybody that just doesn't want to be in control?"
The Call to Repentance
So we grow up like that. We come into the world separated from God, and we use that word repent. To repent means to turn away. So if my hand repents, it turns from that, but look at the implication now. If I turn from something, I turn to something. We turn from our sinfulness, and even our own selfishness, which is in fact religion, where I'm trying to please—
The Real Meaning of Christmas
As a Christian, I'm listening to all the Christmas music now, and as you listen to it, you listen to these DJs try to fill in the time, and all of a sudden they have a spiritual tone to them. So I just heard someone today say, "We want to get ready for the real meaning of Christmas, which is to give." No, the real meaning of Christmas is to receive. It's to receive Jesus into the world.
So in our context, what Daniel is saying is it's time to repent from your effort to please a holy God, and turn to the provision He's made for you, which is Christ. There are two types of people in the world, two big buckets: biblical Christians and everybody else. And everything else is some sort of hybrid partnership, limited partnership, of "I'm going to make God happy somehow." So Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, this is a great time for you to turn.
Nebuchadnezzar's Pride on Full Display
What in fact happens begins in verse 28. "All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar. Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the palace of Babylon." So he's surveying his house, and some of you have very nice homes. His is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Now it is a big deal.
A town and home and residence was only secure as the fortress around it. So this fortress around the city is large enough to grow enough food for the whole city. The Euphrates River runs through it, the walls are so thick that they would race chariot races around the walls. So now get the setting. He's surveying all of this, dinner's done, sun's going down, got a good cigar, got a little brandy, watching the whole thing unfold.
And here's what he says, verse 30: "Is not this the great Babylon that I have built as a royal palace by my mighty power for the glory of my majesty." Now circle the personal pronouns. A lot of "me" in there. And the words were still on his lips when a voice from heaven came and said, "This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar. Your authority has been taken from you. You will be driven away from people and will live like a wild animal and you'll eat grass like cattle seven times. Seven years will pass by until you understand and acknowledge the Most High is sovereign over kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone as He wishes."
Seven Years of Humbling
For seven years, literally, the king is wandering out to pasture. And you wonder, you talk about stubborn, how many years would you have to eat grass and wander around until you came to your senses. Rather than see this as the harshness of God, it's an amazing picture of the patience of God because He has every right at that moment to destroy Nebuchadnezzar.
When we talk about God as a God of love and a God of patience, understand this: when Adam sinned, God has this amazing creation. So this whole Bible story is about creation, which is Genesis 1 and 2, the fall, which is Genesis 3, and then the rest of the book, which is about redemption and restoration. When Adam sinned, God had every right at that moment to provide Adam no way of redemption. I think sometimes, because we sit on this end and we see what happens, that we think maybe God was obligated to send Jesus into this world. He wasn't.
The Payment for Sin
He's a God of love and He's a God of justice, and as justice demands payment for sin, the wage of sin is death, something has to pay the price. And the reality is, every sin ever committed will be paid for in one of two ways: either through Jesus on the cross, where it's stamped paid in full once and for all—many of you know the experience of that, there's no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus—or by the person who committed this sin, not just on this earth, but in all eternity, never paid in full.
But that's what we have. I've been listening to a bunch of Christmas music that I've selected, so a lot of carols and stuff, with this overarching idea that God so loved the world, that God loved you. And think about this now. He loved you in spite of you, not because of you.
A Father's Love
He loved you, His kids. I was at a kindergarten open house and everybody, "Oh wasn't it cute?" Not particularly. And there was only one of those kindergarten kids that I loved with a special love, and that was Yale. My little man, and I'm watching the little guy up there, and everybody's talking about, "Isn't he cute?" And I assumed they were talking about Yale, but they were all talking about their own kids. Yale was here, and they were taking pictures of other kids, and I didn't fully comprehend why would you not take a picture of Yale? I mean, he's my kid, I love him. Do I love, theoretically, do I love kids in general? Yeah, but I love my kids more.
And as a maturing adult, sometimes you don't get this, or you trivialize it, because you're such a lousy lover. You're a crummy lover. You are a conditional lover. "I'll love her if," "I'll love him when," "I love today, but I won't love tomorrow." And now we come to God, and we don't fully comprehend that He loves you in spite of you.
You're not on probation. Those of you who are Christians, He's not going to throw you out. You're going to do some awful things today, and tomorrow, and the rest of your life, and you're never going to reach a point where He says, "Okay that's enough, you're done." And that's that provision. That's that patient God.
Nebuchadnezzar's Restoration
And Nebuchadnezzar, now, he has this period of seven years. Look at verse 34, and we get to the conclusion of this. "At the end of this time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High, I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion, His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the people of earth are regarded as nothing."
He does as He pleases with the power of heaven, the people on earth. No one can hold His hand back or say to Him, "What have you done?" Here's what we get out of verse 35: He's God. He's a God who does as He pleases, and that doesn't mean that He operates in some capricious way. It means that He has a plan, and His plan will be done. No one, or power, or as R.C. Sproul says, even a maverick molecule loose in the universe can usurp His plan. He's God, He's sovereign.
I used a phrase a couple of weeks ago, and a guy came up afterwards. He said, "I kind of disagree with you." I said, "Okay, what?" He said, "You said God causes or allows everything, and I don't think that's true." Now in the old days, that would have launched a long argument for me, but I've matured to some level, and I said to him, "What do you think?"
God's Sovereignty in Suffering
Let's put it in the context of last weekend. What do you do if you're in Washington, Illinois, and in comes this tornado, and the people are walking out the next day, and they can't even find street corners? They can't go to 1st and Main because they don't know where 1st and Main went. He said, "Are you saying God caused it?" I'm saying God either caused it or allowed it, or He is not God. What are you saying, that He had no power over it? That's scarier than what I'm saying—that He's in heaven, and He sees this, and He knows it's going to happen, but He can't do anything about it, or He doesn't know it's going to happen, and He could have done something? No, He's sovereign. He raises up. Do I understand it at all? No.
I am doing something I didn't think I would do. I'm reading "Killing Jesus," and I'm reading it because everybody's buying it. I'm not reading it for theological content, trust me, but I'm reading it for the fact that people are buying this stuff like mad, and I want to be able to understand what the hook is. As you read about that time, and you see how vicious these people were, I can't explain a Herod or a Hitler. I can't explain history. I can't explain why would God do this. I got the big bucket for you—for your good and His glory. I got that, but I can't explain it.
When you see these ads, or you hear these stories about little kids, I gotta tell you that I had Brayden the other day, and I'm taking him home. He is just so easy, and I said, "Buddy, you just make me want to do stuff for you. You're so easy, and so grateful." He's got me teed up to go, "Why don't we stop now and get something?" He said, "Thank you, thank you."
I can't imagine—Yale's going through it right now. Yale's been sick for three weeks, and so they're running all these tests, and they're narrowing it down. He's just this little kid that you love to watch, love to watch him play, you love to watch him live life. I can't imagine the phone ringing and saying, "Tom, Yale's gone," or worse yet, he's in this state that's so non-Yale, or Lucy. I can't imagine it. I don't know how I handle it. I think I know how I'd like to handle it, but the only thing that would get me through that, singular, is the doctrine that God either caused it or allowed it, for our good, for His glory.
The Authority of Scripture
See, this is what we have to come to when it comes to this idea of God. As long as we leave the discussion nebulous, spiritual—I was talking to somebody the other day. I said, "I'm a very spiritual person." I said, "What does that mean? I don't even know what that means." "Well, I know, Tom, I know what you believe, but I don't believe that." I said, "Okay, well, why don't you show me where I'm wrong? Let's do that. That's easier, because I don't want to have to spend a bunch of time figuring out what you believe, because it morphs every time we get close to an answer."
Then ultimately, you just ask this question: Where did you get that? From Rush, or Hannity, or Oprah, Mark Levin? Is this what Mark Levin thinks? Where did you get that? So for us, this is it, right here—final authority. If the Bible says and speaks to it explicitly, it's it. If it says do it, do it. If it says avoid it, avoid it.
Nebuchadnezzar's Restoration and Testimony
Nebuchadnezzar gives you this answer. Look at verse 36. We talked about it—his sanity's restored, his honor and splendor returned to him, his advisers and nobles sought him out, he's restored to his throne. Verse 37: "And now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of Heaven, because everything He does is right, and all His ways are just, and those who walk in pride, He's able to humble."
There's that besetting sin. As I begin to review—we take the end of the year, and I always kind of look back, and kind of what were the high points, and what emerged from teaching—what really emerged this year was the linking of humility and love. When C.S. Lewis defines pride, he defines it as a complete anti-God state of mind. Humility—I know it's the bumper sticker—but humility is not thinking less of yourself; it's thinking about yourself less. It's not "what about me, what about me," but all of a sudden, I begin to see that God placed me in this world. The world's not all about me.
The Subtlety of Pride
So I'm talking to a guy one day that's got this big new car. It's a great car. I'd love to have it. Got nothing against the car—if somebody gave it to me, I'd take it. So he's describing this car to me, and in the middle of his sentence, I said, "My Pathfinder has a hundred and twenty-seven thousand miles on it." He just keeps talking, and I'm driving home, and I had this moment where I said, "What the heck was that?"
You know what it was, right? In the midst of his pontificating—which he really wasn't, and that's me projecting into him, not him—I wanted to let him know that I was very proud of how humble I'd become, that I'm man enough, I didn't need that car. But see how subtle it is? That story's not—
The Subtlety of Pride
This story is about the subtleness of pride. In this idea of clarity and confusion, the confusion that Nebuchadnezzar started with is, "Is this not the great Babylon that I have built?" You have your version of it. Yes, I have this skill set. Some of you are very gifted in math and science. Some of you can make dough. Some of you are handsome. Some are pretty. It's not you. Those are gifts from God that He gave you. Hopefully you steward them well.
The clarity is what Nebuchadnezzar saw at the end: "So that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdom, and He gives to those whoever He wishes, and sets them over the lowliest of man." He's the one that's in charge, not you.
There are two more chapters with two great stories, so we'll pick that up the week after next. Next week is Thanksgiving.
Father, thank You for this awesome and amazing truth. We hear it, God, and for most of us in the room, it rings clear. We know it's true. Now let us live that way. We pray that in Christ's name, amen.